Log on Log . . .

My great American novel, Log on Log will be published by Beach Lane Books in the future. I'm not sure they have found an illustrator.Here's a copy of the post I wrote on that for Pen and Ink in September, 2011

I just signed a contract with Beach Lane Books!

“Hooray!” you say.“How did this happen?”

I’m so glad you asked.

Last year, after doing a number of posts on first
line/paragraphs, I decided to bring an older picture book out of my file
cabinet.The Undertoads was a
manuscript. that had the benefit of too much wonderful advice.I’d rewritten it so many times that I’d lost
impetus. After I read The Quiet Book and All the World, I thought perhaps there
might be room for The Undertoads as a mood piece.

I showed it to Pen and Ink.They gave me more excellent advice.Armed with three wonderful critiquers at my back, I polished the rhyme
and rewrote it both as a story and as a mood piece.I wanted to submit it to Allyn Johnston at
Beach Lane Books. I composed my query letter and the Pen and Inker polished
it.Hilde is the final polisher on all
things query.

Allyn rejected it.

After the usual dialog Of
course, it’s not any good.Why do I
think anyone would want to read what I write. I perked up and concentrated
on the fact that it was a beautiful rejection letter. It was hand written AND
it had stickers on it.

I decided I wanted to send Allyn a gift for sending me such
a nice letter.I decided to send her Log.

Log is the only
picture book I ever wrote and illustrated.I didn’t think anyone would understand it without illustrations, so I
drew one log, one hog, one frog, one bog and one dog. I scanned them into the
computer and printed several copies of each and then moved them around on the
dummy pages.I scanned the final result
into a PB manuscript.

Here’s the letter I wrote Allyn:

November
24, 2010

Dear Allyn,

In honor of the Holidays, I am submitting to you my version of the
Great American Novel.

Log has everything: The Circle of Life, The American Dream, The
eternal struggle of Sentient Beings vs Nature.

AND it can be read in ninety seconds. (I mean who has time to read
these days.)

With Joy

Susan J Berger

I sent it off without an SASE because it was a gift. I never
expected to hear back.I wanted to make
her laugh.

Six days later I got a phone call.“This is Allyn Johnston.You didn’t send a SASE.”

I didn’t answer right away because I was pretty sure I was
hallucinating.Then I said something
lame, like, “You have to give me a minuteto get my heart back to normal.”

She said I’d made her day.She’d been sitting on the floor feeling crappy.“I opened your envelope and saw the query and
grumbled ‘I don’t want to read anyone’s Great American Novel.’”Then she said she started reading and
laughing. She read it to her son and he thought it was hysterical.

Allyn
didn’t like my illustrations and I couldn’t say, “I’m fine with that.” fast
enough. Then Allyn said the magic words. “I think
we can do business together.”

As soon as she hung up, I
keyed her name to the phone number.I
couldn’t wait to get to Hilde’s and show them my phone.The amount of joy in that room could have
been used to light Los Angeles.I know we are all going to get published.
It’s just a matter of when.

I email Allyn as she requested.And…Nothing.December…January….In
February I mailed her a revised ending for Log.I thought she might have changed her mind, so
this time I sent an SASE.Nothing….

On St Patrick’s Day, I got an email from Allyn:

Hello there, O Patient Susan!

Many apologies for the delay in making
things official with you for your very promising and funny picture-book text.
We would indeed like to buy it.

What followed was
the deal memo which amazed me in its completeness. (Theme Park rights were
covered.)

Of course I said
“Yes!” and added a request to come to La Jolla
to sign it. I offered to bring Hilde’s cookies.

And
then….May…June…July…

August 4th.The SCBWI conference started on the 5th.Hilde and I planned to ambush Allyn with
Hilde’s cookies before Allyn’s first breakout session.(As soon as Hilde’s novel Wet Foot Dry Foot
is revised to her agent’s satisfaction, it will be going to Allyn.Allyn is the one who encouraged Hilde to
write it after a manuscript consultation at the 2008 SCBWI.)I decided to email Allyn before she left La Jolla.

Dear Allyn,

I'm looking forward to seeing you at the
conference and hoping Andrea is coming too. I'll be the one with the log
on my shoulder at the Saturday night party. Pen and Ink decided to come
up with a Tshirt for the pajama party. I think you'll like it.
I guess I'm not supposed to pitch you again till after I sign the contract forLog, which is too bad cause i
want to query you withWar and
Peace For Challenged Readers(alternate
title:Cat and Rat)
andThe War of the
Noses, (alternate title: Monks and Skunk)

Blessings,

Susan

And she replied!

And I have the
contract for you--haha! Will be e-mailing it for you to print, review, sign,
and then return for you advance due on signing!

The ambush was successful, if you discount Allyn’s shock at
being approached by two strangers with cookies.When we saw her after her Sunday session, “What the heck is a Picture
Book?” Allyn said that Marla Frazee saw the cookies and tasted one and said,
“Where did you get these? They’re divine.”Hilde’s promised to give Marla the recipe.

The contract arrived by email on August 19th. I
printed out three copies and returned them by mail. I signed the I-9 form and
faxed it back.Any day now I will get a
check for the first part of the advance.I’m waiting for the editorial letter or email from Allyn so I can make
the changes she requests. After that I will be eligible for the second part of
the advance.

It’s hard to wait. I want everything to happen much faster.
I want to know who the illustrator will be. I want to see the finished
book.

I also know that Allyn’s the conductor of this symphony
called Log on Log and I’ve become a
member of the orchestra. And, Ms. Johnston, I’m very happy to be under your
baton.